In Part 3 we configured vCO, it's authentication, SSL certificates and vCenter server. Now in Part 3 we are going to look at how to access and use VCO, including running a workflows.

This is where it get's more interesting and you will get a feel for what vCO looks like and what it can do.

 

 

In Part 1 we deployed the vCenter Orchestrator virtual appliance. Now in part 2 we are going to configure vCO, such as SSO integration, vCenter and SSL certificates amongst other items.

 

 

vCenter Orchestrator (vCO) is a product which allows you to create tasks and automated workflows which and be run directly within vSphere Web Client or the vCenter Orchestrator Client.

 

There are a number of pre-made workflows to get your started, and the number of tasks you can perform is quite amazing. Any task that can be performed in vCenter can be automated through vCO, and thats just the start. Add some Active Directory integration, API's and other 3rd party plugin's makes this a pretty neat toolkit.

 

Workflows can be anything from simple workflows that contain a single task to say create a virtual machine, to complicated workflows containing many tasks that might build an entire solution and integrate with 3rd party plugins.

One of the best things about vCO is it's included with vCenter Server and it's free!


If you are in the unfortunate position in which you or someone else has forgotten the vCenter SSO v5.1 admin@System-Domain password, then you may have a problem. Particularly if there are no other users delegated as SSO administrators.

However the aim of this blog post is to help you in resetting the admin@System-Domain password in SSO 5.1 only (it is much easier in 5.5)!.

 

First and foremost it's worth pointing out this is completed unsupported by VMware. VMware's advise and supported method is to reinstall SSO.

However you do have 2 other possible options I have presented below.

 

The default pathing policy for a LUN can be changed (for example from Fixed to Round Robin). This can be a LUN on an iSCSI or FC array (or FCoE for that matter).
When I refer to pathing policy I'm refering to what you may have seen if you've ever clicked manage path's on a VMFS datastore and see it set to Fixed, Round Robin (RR) or Most Recently Used (MRU).

 

In this example I will be changing the default pathing policy for an EqualLogic array from Fixed to Round Robin.

 

 

Before I get into how to change the multi-pathing policy, it's important to understand the below 3 plugins (NMP, SATP and PSP):

 

  • NMP (Native Multipathing Plugin) is an extensible multipathing module within ESXi. "esxcli storage nmp" can be used to manage devices associated with NMP and to set path policies. SATPs and PSPs are plugins within the NMP plugin.
  • SATP (Storage Array Type Plugin) determines how path failover is handled for a specific storage array.
  • PSP (Path Selection Plugin) determines which physical path is used to issue an I/O request to a storage device.

 

 

Since the release of VMware Horizon View 5.2 Feature Pack 1, it has been possible to access View virtual desktops simply via a HTML5 browser, without the need for the View Client.

Now in Horizon View 5.3 Feature Pack 1, this ability now has an improved feature set and really makes this a viable alternative in some cases to the full VMware View Client. It is particularly useful if you need to get access to a desktop quickly where the View client is not installed or cannot be installed, such as working remotely on a non company owned device.

 

Some of the improvements to functionality are:

  • Copy and Paste bi-directional between virtual desktop and the client endpoint
  • Audio playback support
  • Performance improvements

 

I just had an issue with vCenter 5.5 and ESXi 5.5 where I was unable to power on a VM.

The error which I was faced with was a relatively generic message based on the host connection status.

 

"The operation is not allowed in the current connection state of the host"

 

 

In part 1 and 2 we covered the installation of the pre-requisite's required for SCCM and the actual install of SCCM.

 

System Center Configuration Manager SCCM 2012 R2 Installation Step by Step - Part 1

System Center Configuration Manager SCCM 2012 R2 Installation Step by Step - Part 2

 

 

In this part (part 3) we will perform the post installation tasks for SCCM.

We are going to cover checking the publishing status to Active Directory, Network access account, Software update syncing from Microsoft, Email alerts and network boundaries.

 

 

 

In this blog post I will go through the installation of System Center Configuration Manager 2012 R2 as a single Primary Site Server.

SQL Server 2012 is installed on the same server which SCCM will be installed on, which itself will be Windows Server 2012.

You can install SQL Server 2012 on the same server as SCCM or on a seperate server if you wish, If you are yet to install SQL Server 2012 you can view the step by step process for that here SQL Server 2012 Install Step by Step.

 

 

In part 1 we covered the installation of the pre-requisite's required for SCCM. If you missed that catch it below, otherwise we will get on with the install of SCCM 2012 R2.

System Center Configuration Manager SCCM 2012 R2 Installation Step by Step - Part 1

 

 

SCCM 2012 R2 Installation

 

1. Run the SCCM 2012 R2 Setup (splash.hta) and Click "Install"

 

 

I recently had a problem in my home lab where I had forgotten the password to my 3COM 2928 SFP Plus switch. So I was unable to logon to the web administration page to configure the ports.

 

As I understand it, if you do not know any usernames/passwords for the switch your only option is to perform a factory reset, losing ALL configuration from the switch. So hopefully you have an up-to-date backup of the config to re-apply, or it was a simply setup you can remember. You need to do this out of hours if it's in production!

 

Note: The default password for a 3COM 2928 SFP (I assume its the same all the 2900 series and some other 3COM switches):

 

  • Username: admin
  • Password: <blank>

 

 

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All advice, installation/configuration how to guides, troubleshooting and other information on this website are provided as-is with no warranty or guarantee. Whilst the information provided is correct to the best of my knowledge, I am not reponsible for any issues that may arise using this information, and you do so at your own risk. As always before performing anything; check, double check, test and always ensure you have a backup.

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